My Creative Life #17 - Babes in the Belfry

My life in France has given me a new lust for belltowers... my apartment was across the road from the world's most famous at Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. Of course, a belltower would not suit most homes... but I live in a schoolhouse! 

My Beau has had an obsession with the house's missing belltower since we moved in. And I am fairly accepting of all of his whims and eccentricities (he really is a beautiful man). Hence the month long build and final raising of our belltower in August.

The night before was a terrible storm so we were so happy to see the sun peak out the morning the crane was to arrive. At the 8am raising, a dozen onlookers including my parents, a few friends and neighbours watched our tower come to life. A father and daughter who had both attended the school (25 or so years apart) dropped by to see it go up. Even a "reporter" from our local paper ;)

The bell was rung, it sounded lovely and overall the schoolhouse looks the best it has in 30 years, reunited with its "headpiece". We are now officially the crazy couple who live in an old schoolhouse.

At least once a week I run into the house and excitedly say to My Beau, "there is a bell on the top of our house!" 

I am a silly girl.

Here is the original belltower circa 1941:

The raising by my gorgeous beau (black shirt):

Et toute fini! Ma cloche d'école est très mignon!

Oh Quasimodo, where are you?

My Creative Life #16 - My New Old Kitchen

The old kitchen just didn't do our house justice. 

We wanted something that would keep the integrity of the lovely open space of the one room schoolhouse but still have a bit of punch. The results are exactly what we needed. The cupboards blend without being boring and the yellow backsplash and patterned countertop add a bit of pizzazzazzazz.

And now that I'm excited to bake... I finally got a library card. A convoluted process involving 2 townships and 3 libraries (country bureaucracy). My first sign outs: Baking At Home with The Culinary Institute of America, Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian and The Origins of Fruits & Vegetables. My veggie garden needs help, I asked the organic veggie woman at the market about my dried up courgettes and she said that I will have to do a bit of artificial insemination with the wee flowers :0

So here is the old kitchen (blah):

And my beautiful new old kitchen:

My beau sure is a keeper (he's handsome too ;) Time to bake!

My Creative Life #15 - A Million Years Ago

I had a blog. Or at least it seems like that long ago ;) I could promise to be a better blogger but then I would just set everyone up for disappointment... hee.

Happy New Year! Since I didn't actually have a chance to say that 6 months ago. 

What in the world have I been up to? Well, I worked a bit, I drew a bit, I fell even more in love with my Beau, I cooked a lot and baked, studied some French (language and history), planned a trip to Europe, lived in Paris for a month, visited Belgium and Holland and got a canoe.

Home again, jiggity jig.

And one of the best things about being home in June... hummingbirds! I just love these little creatures. My thirsty, window pets. We seem to have a family which we have named Baron (red throat), Buzzy and Baby Buzzy (otherwise known as Zippy).

Exhibit One: The Hummingbird Feeder:

The feeder has large red, plastic "flowers" which the hummingbirds stick there needle beaks through to lap up the sugar water. They feed quite often since they exert so much energy in their rapid little wings. 

Last summer, the Beau and I were lounging on the deck having a nice conversation when what I thought was a huge bug landed on my chest. I quickly swatted it away while the Beau shrieked, "Careful, its a hummingbird!" It seemed to have mistaken me for its feeder:

Exhibit Two: The shirt I was wearing whilst under hummingbird attack:

I don't wear this shirt in the garden anymore.

My Creative Life #14 – Luvin Lemon

I really love lemon. I would actually choose a lemon cake over a chocolate one. Its just so fresh and happy and citrusy. And the smell of lemons are delightful. I drink a hot lemon and honey drink every morning too (has almost cured me of my coffee addiction).

I really thought lemons were the tops until walking through my local grocery store I discovered something even better. In tiny St. Marys, the town that makes Stratford look like a metropolis, I found a bag of fragrant, pretty, the perfect shade of "lemon" yellow... Meyer Lemons!

(Meyer Lemons are thought to be a cross between a lemon and a mandarin).

And they are just as lovely as everyone raves about. 

I debated what to make with them and decided on a pound cake. This also gave me a chance to use the nifty rasp My Beau thoughtfully bought for me recently. It turned the peel into feathery, light zest that mixed beautifully into the batter. Oh how I love Lee Valley tools.

I couldn't bring myself to use 1/2 cup of olive oil but I should have accommodated for it because I would like a moister cake. Perhaps, more yogurt would do the trick. I used Dorie Greenspan's recipe as a base. Next time I will try blood oranges (sorry, Ang) or tangerines. 

Only caveat is when I eat the cake, I start to cough... hmmm, lemon allergy? (tres triste).

Now, what to do with my remaining 3 lemons? Any suggestions?

Meyer Lemon and Yogurt Pound Cake

• 1 cup sugar
  
• zest of 1 meyer lemon
  
• juice of 1 meyer lemon
  
• 1/2 cup yogurt (I would up it to 1 cup)
  
• 3 large eggs
  
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
  
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 1/2 cups flour
  
• 2 tsp baking soda
  
• pinch of salt (if you are daring add some rosemary!)

Preheat over 350 degrees and grease loaf pan.

Mix sugar, zest and juice in a bowl. Whisk in yogurt, eggs and vanilla. In another bowl mix dry ingredients. Add the dry to the wet ingredients and gently whisk. Fold in oil. 

Scrape into pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden, knife inserted will come out clean.

Add glaze to make it super-meyer lemony! Pour a mixture of juice from one lemon and 2 tbsp of sugar over the loaf while cooling in pan. 

My Creative Life #12 - The Perfect Brownie 3

More rotten bananas get eaten in this house than fresh ones. The poor boy wants to help me bake something and it always needs to revolve around bananas so I can get rid of them. I suppose I should try to eat more bananas but they really only have a few decent days in them. 

The perfect banana day for me is just past green, still a little crisp but slightly sweet without any graininess. As soon as there is a little brown, its over.

Our normal go to recipe is banana bread but I thought it would be best to combine my Beau's love of brownies with the bad bananas. And so into my existence grows the chocolate banana brownie!

Chocolate Banana Brownie

• 1/3 cup butter
  
• 6 oz chocolate
  
• 3/4 cup sugar 
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1/2 cup mashed banana
  
• 2 tsp vanilla
  
• 2/3 cup flour
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• pinch salt
  

Preheat oven 350 degrees and grease 8x8 pan. 

Melt butter and stir in chocolate until liquid. In bowl, mix eggs, banana, vanilla and sugar. Stir in chocolate mixture. In separate bowl whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet.

Scrape into pan and bake for 25 minutes, do not overbake. 

My Creative Life #11 - Naked Ladies

I figure that title alone will have my blog popping up on google searches everywhere. 

One of my Beau's clients is an artist and was kind enough to invite me to her weekly life drawing group. It is an intimate group of about half dozen artists who meet up and share a model for a two hour session. The session is held at one of the artist's beautiful heritage home in a cozy study with comfy chairs, classical music, and a wood fire burning. 

Being around experienced artists can be intimidating but I was comforted by the calm and quiet of the room and the focus of the group around me. Each person was there for their own study and there was no pressure or competition. 

When I was in college we would have a 4 hour life drawing class once a week. It was in a brightly lit room with 20 ambitious students shrouded by 20 paper clad easels. My instructor was an eccentric woman who was fascinated with anatomy and who was not opposed to picking up roadkill or carcasses from farmers if it meant she could pick the bones clean for further study (she was also amongst the few of my instructors who had been rumoured to be institutionalized for mental instability). 

The classes were cold, the models colder and the instruction and criticism unrelenting. Not to mention the other students constantly comparing and challenging each others drawing skills. It wasn't fun and killed my urge to draw for the joy of it. 

Yesterday's drawing group was small and quiet but being there amongst them filled me with a strange joy. It was tiring but it was fun. The home owner invited me back for next week and I'm already excited to join in again. Perhaps I can rediscover the joy that I always had for drawing. 

My Creative Life #10 - Souper Saturdays!

This being "sniffle" season I am spending even more time on Earth Clinic finding the magic elixer for all my ills. Since moving to the country I have become quite a hippy/witch doctor. I drink apple cider vinegar everyday... honey and lemon drinks to keep a cold away... grapefruit seed oil as an antibacterial and aloe vera as a pick me up. Somewhere between this and my continuing vegetarianism (four months and feeling peachy :) I have lost weight, cleared my complexion and cured my chronic sinus allergy.

The most magic cure-all is also the most delicious... soup!

Autumn Saturdays are super for soup. I have discovered that soup is much easier to make then one would expect. My basic soup recipe is to saute some onions, garlic and spices (depending on the type of soup). Throw in a few cups of root vegetables (and always a potato to thicken) cook them just enough to add some flavour. Add enough liquid (water, broth, wine, beer, juice) to cover and boil until soft. Puree the entire mess (to me this is the key). Add a cup of a creamy liquid (milk, evaporated milk, coconut milk) and beans or extras and simmer. Sometimes I add everything to my crock pot to simmer or just serve it right away. 

Using this formula I have made a classic potato soup, a carrot, apple and ginger soup and my new favourite, a squash, curry and lentil soup (a variation of bea's lovely soup). 

Soup is also a great way to make picky eaters eat vegetables... since it is really easy to lie about what's in it. For instance this soup was made with butternut squash (sounds icky to a ten year old) so when asked what was in it I said, potatoes and curry... only partly true but he ate it. Makes me feel so powerful.

Squash Curry Lentil Soup

• 1 butternut squash, cubed
  
• 1 potato, cubed
  
• 2 cups of cauliflower, chopped
  
• 1 small onion
  
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
  
• 1 tbsp cumin
  
• 2 tbsp curry
  
• 2 tbsp garam masala
  
• olive oil
  
• 5 cups of vegetable broth
  
• 1 can coconut milk
  
• 1 can lentils
  

In a large pot, saute onions in olive oil to soften. Add garlic and spices cook to release flavour but do not brown. Add vegetables and cook for 5 minutes. Add broth to cover vegetables bring to a boil turn down the heat to medium and let simmer for 20 minutes (until vegetables are soft). 

Lower the heat and using a hand blender puree to desired consistency. Add coconut milk (more water for a thinner soup) and lentils and simmer for one hour.